Archive for the Artists Category


Yuri Manga: Rakuen no Jouken

January 29th, 2008

What happens when an lesbian mangaka draws Yuri manga for a female audience? Why, we have a winner, that’s what!

Morishima Akiko draws whimsically realistic, slightly angsty and decidedly delightful stories of love between women. Rakuen no Jouken is a collection of her stories from Yuri Hime magazine. This collection does not include her Yuri life illustrated column, just her manga.

Rakuen begins with the mini series about OL Sarina and her “friend with benefits,” freelance writer Sumika, as Sumi drops by unexpectedly. They immediately pick up where they left off, but Sarina realizes that she kind of likes having Sumi around. She asks Sumi to live with her, but you can’t cage a free bird, so Sumi returns the favor by asking Sarina to come with her on her next assignment to Malta.

This is followed by a story in which Sumi is unhappy because she has always loved Sarina, but knows that Sarina is more interested in getting a boyfriend. When Sarina breaks up with her current beau, she’s there to comfort her, but the relationship turns much more serious.

The next story picks up with them in Malta, enjoying living together, house and cat-sitting. Sarina angsts slightly over their relationship, because it seems like she’s getting more serious about Sumi than she expected. Since she forgets to use her inside voice, Sumi is able to hear it all and it’s too late to put the cat back in the bag so to speak. Sarina’s fallen in love with Sumi, too. Surrounded by light, love and cats, they look forward to a very happy future together.

The next two stories deal with a really cute couple, Keiko, a 30-year old art teacher and Emi, her 20-year old student. Emi asks Keiko out, and since she doesn’t have a boyfriend and Emi’s kinda cute, Keiko says yes. But Emi isn’t just cute – she’s young, perky, sparkly, bright-eyed, luminescent with life and youth and immediately, Keiko finds herself suffering a crisis. How could this prime example of youth and energy want her old, flabby aged body? (30 is old…. Yes, in 10000 BCE, 30 was old. Welcome to the 21st century, Japanese women! If you’re old at 30 – what do you do for the next 50 years? Sit around and moulder? Crichey.) Anyway, Keiko’s crisis is resolved when she realizes that her real problem is that she’s been in love with this girl since day one. This is followed by a night-over date, which is sadly on a very bad day for Emi. You know – *that* kind of bad day. Emi is full of wide-eyeness, so Keiko can barely take no for an answer. ^_^ I hope we get more of them – the age joke is exhausting, but I like them anyway.

Lalaa is a cosplay-wearing 29-year old loli and her 25-year old lover Shinobu is a editor and flute player. They’ve known each other – and pretty much been together – for 12 years, since they were young. The story revolves around Shinobu’s emotional breakdown in the rain, and Lalaa-sempai’s deep understanding and caring for Shinobu.

“Momo no aji” is a short story about a girl’s confession to an upperclassman and a response that involves a peach-flavored lolipop.

And the final story is a that of Sakura-hime and her guardian tree spirit Fubuki. The story is no less bittersweet than the original that ran in the magazine. A sort of classic melancholy, fitting for the historical setting.

Morishima is not afraid of service – she gleefully has her characters in various states of undress, costumes, and partial nudity for your viewing pleasure. But her art is so sweet and round and soft, and her characters so feminine, that it never feels like “service.” The sex tends to be on the snuggly side, with a blessed lack of gouting bodily fluids. Her humor tends to make me snort, rather than laugh, if you take my meaning. And her work is cute, cute, cute, all the way down.

If you’re looking for non-schoolgirl Yuri stories, especially ones that reflect actual women’s daily experiences, Rakuen no Jouken is just about perfect. (Even if there aren’t any lesbians in it.  ^_^)

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – variable, averaging out at about 8
Characters – an almost universally likeable 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 4

Overall – 9

Of all the Yuri Hime collections, this is one of the very best so far. I look forward to seeing it in English one day. ^_^





Yuri Drama CD: El Cazador de La Bruja

January 17th, 2008

Had a *brilliant* time at the signing last night, I’ll post pics and comments this weekend. In the mean time, a review of an actual anime-related thing! Can you believe it?

It’s not too often I can call a Drama CD just about perfect. Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to: Madrigal Halloween is pretty much the only one I’d give that title to so far. But El Cazador de la Bruja: El Bosque del Eco must certainly share the title. It has everything an El Cazador fan could possibly want. Ellis teasing Nadie slightly inappropriately, Nadie saying, “Yuigon attara, dozo” in that way she does, with the smile obvious in her tone, Ellis brightly saying “Yes sir!” when she gets her own way, Ricardo saving the day, Lilio not speaking until she does and then creeping us all out, Blue Eyes sardonically narrating, and sharing a moment or two with one of her unnamed henchchicks. Unfortunately, Rosenberg pretending to be a decent guy to Melissa, who is desperately trying to trust him. And, of course…LA being a freakazoid.

And magic, and violence and miracles and action and great music.

Perfect.

For fans of the series, this was an episode that fits in the final third of the series – after Ellis has realized that she’s in love with Nadie, but not vice versa yet.

The story begins with our heroines arriving at a town with no money, and no prospects – there’s not even an Amigos Tacos in the place. A pervy old guy approaches them with a request to pose for inappropriate pictures, which is negotiated down a bit, until they are sidetracked by finding an emerald necklace. Oh, the pervy old dude says – that belongs to the Professor, it’s part of a treasure from the mythical Ringing Forest. So off Ellis and Nadie go to return the necklace and make the world right.

Only, they encounter the Professor’s wife dying from a gunshot wound, and who gives them a casket. They try to return all of this to the Professor who turns out to be a fake, in it for the money – and his partner, the pervy old guy. Nadie and Ellis fall for the oldest trick in the book and are drugged. Ricardo wakes them up, then watches hopelessly as they drive off to get their revenge – well, they don’t actually say that, but let’s be real.

LA delays the creepy guys, Ricardo saves their lives, LA eventually kills them anyway and in the end, Ellis and Nadie learn that the casket actually holds a skeleton, the spirit of which possesses Lilio and says that it has come home, followed by the manifestation of the El Bosque del Eco, the Ringing Forest. And all is well again. In the epilogue, Ellis tries to get Nadie into a daring bathing suit, if not for the pictures, then just to enjoy her in same. (She obfuscated a situation a bit earlier in the story, too, in order to undress Nadie – when confronted about it, all Ellis would say was that Nadie was sexy that way.)

In the beginning and middle of the story, Rosenberg lies beautifully to Melissa a bit, too.

This DCD comes with the extra of a postcard of the cover art of Nadie and Ellis looking happily at one another. And the cast and crew credits come in English and Japanese, something I thought was kinda cool.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 5
Service – 6

Overall – 8

Unless I’m hallucinating, Jody “Blue Eyes” Hayward’s henchchicks never get any voice credit – or, indeed, names. Anyone know who they are and why that is?





The Last Uniform, Volume 2 (English)

January 7th, 2008

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is jet-lagged. Today’s review, which was sponsored by Daniel P., is going to be short.

The Last Uniform Volume 2, is a continuation of the love polygons that were set up in Volume 1. With pretty much no change from the first volume, Ai and Fuuko and Beniko and Tsumugi all court one another semi-secretly; their emotions are visible, but their intentions remain hidden. In an ironic twist, because of the various conflicts and complications, they become closer as friends, as roommates and as people – but not as lovers. Until the end.

It is, of all things, a boy that prompts the final conflict and the first “outing.” A guy, Arita, finds Fuuko’s student ID and brings it to her. They become friendly. Fuuko isn’t really looking at this from any deep perspective. He’s nice, she enjoys his company. Ai, on the other had, begins to boil over with a nice case of jealousy. When Arita asks a slightly overwhelmed Fuuko out, she says yes. Ai-chan appears – she’s overheard the whole thing. She confronts Fuuko about going out with Arita, and confesses that *she* is in love with Fuuko. Then she runs away. End of book. What will become of them? Will their love affair topple the whole precarious domino setup-up of love relationships at the school? We can only wait and see.

In other stories, Tsumugi is still the subject of akogare from Anzu’s direction and Asagi remains a pervert who pretty much ignores the girl at her elbow, while macking on an uninterested Beniko.

Once again, the translation is solid – the text is pretty basic, though, so Seven Seas don’t really get to show their mad skills here. For some reason, the tones in this volume reproduced strangely, so all the blacks and dark tones look spotty. Not the worst thing, but it made everything a bit hard to see. Since Hakamada Mera’s art is neither detailed nor deep there’s no real loss, except for the feeling that your glasses need to be cleaned.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 7
Yuri – 7
Service – 3 (nude modeling, bathing and, of course, school uniforms)

Overall – 6

I’ll never really like The Last Uniform. But I don’t hate it, either. I just wish the characters were appealing to me in any way at all. And there’s only so much “overheating because the girl I like is close to me” that I can take before it gets wearing. Tsumugi exhausts me.





Yuri News This Week – November 1, 2008

January 1st, 2008

Yuri Events

As you read this, I am at MangaNEXT along with a bunch of the Yuricon staff, Rica Takashima and a host of awesome con guests!

Here is my Panel schedule for MangaNEXT:

Friday – 7PM – Writing for Manga

Saturday – 2PM – Yuri Panel
6PM – 10 Steps to Impressing a Publisher

There’s loads of other great stuff, too. Mari Morimoto will be discussing Gay Manga 101 on Friday, and the Manga Library will be hosting a Book Club discussion of Rica’s works on Sunday. In between there’s tons of stuff for fans of every genre, so I really hope you’ll pop by to say hi and stay for the great panels and people.

***

Yuri Manga

Okay, the news is out, at last. Sometime last spring I learned that Tokyopop licensed Yamaji Ebine’s Love My Life, but was asked to not say anything. Well thanks to Amazon’s advance listings, I no longer have to take the rap for being the leak. Hah.

Probably no one cares about this but Amuria in Star Ocean, which had tons of almost-but-not-really-Yuri ends its run in the December issue of Dengeki Daioh.

Nakamura Ching, creator of Gunjou, wrote me to say that she’s getting a lot of overseas requests on how to purchase copies of Morning 2 magazine. Because she’s a really lovely person, she’s gone and created a guide to purchasing back issues from Kodansha’s website. It’s a step-by-step process, with key things translated into English for your benefit! She’s asked me to pass on the information that back issues that contain chapters 1-3 of Gunjou are no longer available, but chapter 4~ are. I seriously think we need to thank her for that effort – it’s completely above and beyond the call of duty, don’t you?

Sean writes in to tell us that Gunsmith Cats Burst is coming to an end in Japan. And the most recent chapter includes a kiss between Misty and Rally. A kiss that is lovingly detailed over *3* pages. It’s a damn good kiss, I have to say. lol Sadly for Misty x Rally fans, it’s a good-bye kiss. But all I have to say is “I knew it!” (That’s sort of a joke, based off my recent GSC fanfic. Just saying. lol)

For Aria and Aqua fans, Amano Kozue has announced a new manga series to begin in March, called Amanchu. The art has two girls, so undoubtedly there will be fans who see it as Yuri. :-)

***

Yuri Anime

Once more Crunchyroll offer free, legal streaming Yuri-ish suff. This time Toei announces, among other things, streaming piles of PreCure. :-)

***

Other News

I just wanted to take a moment to thank three gentlemen for their kindness and friendship. 828-san, Yuki-san and Komatsu-san. Komatsu-san, particularly, sent me a huge pile of books, all of which I will review here (including the surprisingly Yuri PreCure manga.)

All three have sent me beautful art and/or books and all three offer support to both myself and to Yuri-dom at large. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

***

Another Yuri-ful week. How cool is that?





Yuri Anime: Miyuki-chan in Wonderland

December 7th, 2007

Today’s review was brought to you by Katie, who lent me this DVD as a case for something else she was giving me.

It’s been 7 years since I watched Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan and Kagami no Kuni no Miyuki-chan, released collectively in the US as Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I still remember when and where I first saw it, and the look of triumph in the person’s eyes who was showing it to me as if they had discovered a great well-spring of Yuri. My reaction was more along the lines of “gosh, what annoying music.” I remember it well. ^_^

Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is a two-part reimaging of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories by all-female studio CLAMP, starring the happless Miyuki-chan, a schoolgirl far less capable and quite a bit older than Alice. To be fair, Miyuki-chan is not just facing strange creatures loosely based on Cambridge professors of Carroll’s acquaintance, she’s facing sexual harrassment by the all-female anthropomorphic cast of apparent nymphomaniacs that inhabit this Wonderland and Looking Glass world.

The “Yuri” is the above sexual harrassment. Miyuki is more interested in getting home that in the attractive, well-built, adult semi-humans who want to play with her, so the humor is of the “kyaaaahhhh!” variety. Sure, the Mad Hatter *seems* to be gay, but it’s sort of a moot point, really. And it’s a one-trick pony. Practically every meeting involves a sexually suggestive component, flavored with some panty shots. I got tired of it quickly. Many people find it to be brilliant. Your mileage may vary.

The voice cast deserves a mention – it’s fairly all-star, especially the first vignette, the one in Wonderland. There’s some pretty level up names there for what is mostly a soft porn drabble of an anime. :-)

While CLAMP is extremely famous for stunning art, Miyuki-chan the anime, did not do much to expand their reputation. The artbook is significantly less ragged. And it doesn’t have that annoying soundtrack. If you like CLAMP for the art, stick with the book. If you like the idea of all of Caroll’s creatures animated as buxom scantily-clad women sexually harassing a girl, with famous voices, you’ll love the anime. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 5
Characters – 5
Music – 2
Yuri – 5
Service – 8

Overall – 5

Lewis Carroll’s works are the third most-quoted body of literary work in the world, following the Bible and Shakespeare. CLAMP’s contribution to the canon is memorable, without actually being good.